TY - JOUR AU - TIRNAKCI, BERK AU - SALT, YAVUZ PY - 2021/07/14 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PVA-SIO2 NANOCOMPOSITE MEMBRANES FOR SEAWATER DESALINATION BY PERVAPORATION: Original scientific paper JF - Chemical Industry & Chemical Engineering Quarterly JA - Chem. Ind. Chem. Eng. Q. VL - 27 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.2298/CICEQ200505037T UR - https://www.ache-pub.org.rs/index.php/CICEQ/article/view/841 SP - 189-197 AB - <p>Pervaporation is a membrane process that offers high separation performance and has an important potential for the treatment of saline water sources. In this study, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and PVA-SiO<sub>2</sub> nanocomposite membranes were prepared by the solution-casting method, and pervaporative water desal­ination studies were carried out for synthetic seawater (35 g L<sup>-1</sup>) at 30, 40 and 50 °C. Effects of the temperatures and the incorporation of SiO<sub>2</sub> on the pervap­or­ation performance of polymeric nanocomposite membranes were inves­tig­ated. Membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thermogravimetric ana­lysis (TGA). In experiments conducted at 50 °C, a permeate flux of 4.93 kg m<sup>-2</sup> h<sup>-1</sup> with a salt rejection of 99.3% were obtained. The highest salt rejection was 99.8% at temperature of 30 °C. The results showed that the pervaporation per­formance of PVA membranes was remarkably enhanced with the incorporation of nano-SiO<sub>2</sub> into polymeric matrix.</p> ER -